TROLLS Review

It's difficult to not feel indifferent about a movie like Trolls. In the end, it's fine. Is it somewhat offensive in terms of originality and cheap covers of gloriously good pop songs? It could certainly be taken that way, but when taking into consideration the target audience for this latest DreamWorks animated adventure it's hard to get too frustrated with the rote story Trolls tolls out or the advantage it takes in remixing recognizable songs into auto-tuned Kidz Bop versions you could have certainly lived without. Of course, Trolls doesn't mean to offend, but rather it simply means to entertain a fairly wide age range of kiddos while at the same time giving over tried and true lessons that deal in being true to one's self to find true happiness. No, Trolls isn't either a good film or a particularly bad one, but more it is simply one that exists to colorfully distract for an hour and a half only to mostly be forgotten the next day. No harm, no foul. Trolls is ultimately something of a mix between DreamWorks own Shrek series as far as character types go while more or less the same story The Smurfs told us as far as being small creatures who live in peace and harmony while having to battle a much larger being who threatens to eat them among other evil things. There wouldn't be anything necessarily wrong with restructuring these archetypes and plotlines were Trolls interested in doing anything fresh or interesting (and when I say interesting I, obviously, mean weirder) with as much as they've given themselves to work with, but by simply slapping a variety of pop covers throughout rather than going full-on musical and ultimately being more harmless than memorable this movie isn't exactly the kind of product a studio wants to put out if they want to retain any type of credibility. Though it really is difficult to say anything downright terrible about Trolls the bottom line is this was a product made to move merchandise and that it actually turned out as competent and sometimes even as fun as it is shouldn't be forgotten. Sure, one could point out the desperate lengths movie studios are now going to in order to cash in on brands given the troll dolls were first popular in the sixties (with a resurgence in the nineties) or one could point to The LEGO Movie as a film based on toys/superfluous junk that actually turned out rather inspired and great, but somewhere in the middle of those truths and thoughts we find Trolls; just happy to have been given enough room to dance and sing and hug.

THE ACCOUNTANT Review

In director Gavin O'Connor's (Warrior) latest film, The Accountant, the films titular character and our protagonist is one that operates on the high end of the autism spectrum. The character is a math savant who has utilized his high-functioning skills to cook the books for several high-profile criminal clients that would seemingly stack the character's pockets, but may also serve as a threat to Christian Wolff and his legitimate, small-town CPA office. It's a hell of a way to set-up intrigue around a character while simultaneously bringing attention to those who function a little different from what society considers to be the norm especially when the film makes such a character as much a superhero as they do here. As Wolff, Ben Affleck is not only a genius when it comes to numbers though, but he's been nurtured into something of a killing machine by his militaristic father (Robert C. Treveiler). The film then combines these elements of Wolff's personality while mixing in a U.S. Treasury investigation led by the soon to retire Ray King (J.K. Simmons) and his forced apprentice of sorts in Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) that leads Wolff to take on something of a legitimate client in a major robotics company run by John Lithgow. This plotline also introduces us to the obligatory love interest in Anna Kendrick's Dana, but mostly The Accountant is about Affleck kicking ass and counting numbers with the amount of plot Bill Dubuque's (The Judge) screenplay attempts to pile on only serving to take away from the more interesting character study that's trying to peek out from behind all the storylines. And while the film does indeed suffer from something of an identity crisis while at the same time playing into the fact it knows fully what it is by embracing the inherent goofiness of an assassin accountant it never stops being entertaining. Even as the plot jumps from Wolff's main mission to that of the Treasury investigation, and onto the third party tracker embodied by the always charismatic Jon Bernthal and back to Wolff there is always something to keep us invested even if what is doing so feels scattershot. This would typically be a detriment to a film given it signals a lack of trust in the lead characters ability to sustain audience engagement, but under O'Connor's steady hand The Accountant makes one feel just satisfied enough by the time they're done consuming it without actually offering anything of nutritional value.

Teaser Trailer for THE ACCOUNTANT Starring Ben Affleck

In putting together my most anticipated films of the year I labored over whether or not to include The Accountant starring Ben Affleck and Anna Kendrick. From the synopsis it sounded like an interesting enough drama/thriller and with director Gavin O'Connor (Warrior) at the helm I was certainly intrigued, but something about the project just screamed this was going to wind up more in the vein of Runner Runner than The Town. With the first teaser trailer though, I'm certainly more intrigued than I was based solely on the already interesting credentials this thing had going for it. While this could certainly end up being more on the generic side of things it looks as if Connor has taken something of a methodical approach to the material as Affleck plays a forensic accountant that is in another world as far as working with numbers is concerned and while he sits behind the guise of a small town CPA he is doing much bigger business behind the scenes as he un-cooks the books for some illicit clients. It was reported that Affleck pushed directing his next film (Live By Night, which is now in the can) after already pushing it back once before due to Batman v. Superman in order to make this film and so, if nothing else, my interest is piqued for what Affleck might have seen in Bill Dubuque's (The Judge) screenplay that made him so committed to seeing this project through to the end. Whatever the case may be with the final product, there is certainly a lot of promise here and this teaser does a perfect job of highlighting the character quirks that are enough to entice and make one wonder what type of story might have been built on top of them. Besides Affleck and Kendrick, The Accountant also stars J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey Tambor, John Lithgow, and opens on October 14th, 2016.

THE D TRAIN Review

The D Train is an odd movie. It's an interesting one, don't get me wrong, but it's an odd one for sure. I'm a rather faithful comedy fan and have said many times on this site before that I carried a rather rabid affinity for the fan appointed "Frat Pack" that originally consisted of Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Owen and Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell. Any time any of these guys decided to head up a film there was a desperate hope they would include a couple of the others in the proceedings. Soon, Judd Apatow and his gang emerged and the universe has been expanding ever since. In the wake of this merger it always felt like Black was somewhat left behind. This was obviously unfortunate given Black is one of those guys who can make you laugh with a simple facial expression, but his output has become increasingly stale since hitting a high mark in 2008 with Tropic Thunder and Kung-Fu Panda. Looking back through his filmography it is almost alarming how little he has done in the past few years with his last out and out feature being the horribly marketed and little-seen The Big Year in 2011. With The D Train, Black seems to be making something of a statement in that, at the very least, he'd like to see his career go in a more mature way, one that puts him in the position of actually investing in his characters and developing his skills rather than simply cashing the quick check and making the same faces. We've seen this before from the comic, especially in the underrated Bernie, but here it is more of a concentrated effort than the seemingly haphazard way in which Black picked projects prior.

First Trailer for THE HANGOVER PART III

It is hard to argue with those who didn't like The Hangover Part II. It was clearly a carbon copy of the first film with a change in location, but it is hard to deny that the film was funny. And the reason it maintained that same level of humor and endearment with the audience is due to the characters. For me, personally it makes little difference what these guys are doing or where they are as long as they are doing it together. That looks to be the main focus of this first glimpse of Part III as the format for someone getting married and a bachelor party have been ditched and the boys are on some kind of quest for something that has the film looking very action-filled. There isn't as much comedy here as I hoped to see, but it is only a teaser and it is likely they have to save some of the best bits for the audience admitted to an R-rated film; here's hoping! It has likely become the hip thing to hate on this series because "everyone" disliked the second film, but it was fun if not innovative like the first. Think about that first one though, it was an instant classic in the realm of comedy and I trust Todd Phillips well enough to know he understands what people disliked about the second film and has fixed it with the third while still maintaining everything that made the first one such a huge success. The core cast is all back with Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, and Justin Bartha (though we don't see Doug once in the trailer) as well as returning members Ken Jeong, Heather Graham, Jamie Chung, Mike Epps, Mike Tyson, Jeffrey Tambor and some fresh blood in Melissa McCarthy and John Goodman. The Hangover Part III opens May 24th. Hit the jump to watch the trailer.